Mussel-inspired polydopamine-modified biochar microsphere for reinforcing polylactic acid composite films: Emphasizing the achievement of excellent thermal and mechanical properties

Having poor interfacial compatibility between biochar microsphere (BM) and polylactic acid (PLA) should be responsible for the unbalance of composite film strength and toughness. Elucidating the effect of polydopamine (PDA) on BM and BM/PLA composite films is the ultimate goal of this study based on the mussel bionic principle. It was found that the strong adhesion of PDA on the BM surface was achieved, which improved the surface roughness and thermal stability. Also, PDA modification can facilitate crystallization, increase thermal properties, improve interfacial compatibility, and enhance the tensile properties of BM/PLA composite films. Silane-based PDA modified BM/PLA composite film exhibited the best tensile strength, tensile modulus, and elongation at break with 77.95 MPa, 1.87 GPa, and 7.30%. These noteworthy findings, achieving a simultaneous improvement in PLA strength and toughness, hold promising implications for its sustainability.

Recent advances in performance improvement of Metal-organic Frameworks to remove antibiotics: Mechanism and evaluation

Antibiotic pollution is a serious global problem, which may threaten the health of human and ecosystem. Thereinto, water pollution is the most common way. Thus, it is necessary to develop effective methods to remove antibiotics from the natural aqueous environments. Metal-organic Frameworks (MOFs) - based adsorption and photocatalysis strategies have been demonstrated to be efficient, environmental and promising methods to solve antibiotic pollution and repair the environment. In this review, several strategies to improve the properties of MOFs for removal were summarized and discussed. And the removal mechanisms were also discussed. Besides, new and more reliable evaluation methods of MOFs to remove antibiotics were presented, including preferential adsorption (q_p), quantum yields (QY), space time yields (SY) and figure of merit (FOM). This paper provides alternative perspectives for researchers to improve the properties of MOFs and raise analytic efficiency of antibiotic removal.

Structure and properties of cellulose/HAP nanocomposite hydrogels

The exploiting of abundant natural polymers as potential absorbents for heavy metal ions is attracting. Cellulose is the most abundant natural polymer and exhibits amazing properties such as high chemical stability, hydrophilicity and biodegradability. However, some properties of pure cellulose-based materials including adsorbability are usually not enough, so it is important to improve their properties to broaden their applications. In the present work, hydroxyapitite (HAP) nanoparticles were prepared and introduced to improve the cellulose hydrogel (CG) properties. The structure and properties of the resultant cellulose/HAP nanocomposite hydrogels (CHG) were characterized and studied systematically. The results indicated that HAP nanoparticles was fixed and distributed evenly in CG. The maximum decomposition temperature increased gradually from 334.6 °C for CG to 346.7 °C for CHG, and the compressive strength increased gradually from 100 kPa for CG to 570 kPa for CHG with the increase of HAP content, respectively. Moreover, the adsorption capacity (q_e) value of CHG towards Cu²⁺ could reach more than 300% higher than that of CG. As a potential absorbent, CHG exhibited relatively good recyclability of more than 78% after 10 cycles. Therefore, the introduction of HAP improved the properties of CG greatly, showing wide potential applications.